Introducing Clark Build: Empowering Educators with New Economic Opportunities

By Megan O'Connor, Clark CEO

Raised by a single-mother that (to this day) teaches middle school English and History, I grew up passionate about the notion that educators should have the economic opportunities that they deserve. It’s an unfortunate reality that many teachers choose to pursue new careers when they find that teaching cannot provide the financial stability they need to support themselves or their families.

Tutoring has long been a viable solution to either supplement a teacher’s income or create a full-time alternative that keeps them in the education space, but there’s never been an easy way for tutors to build and manage their businesses. When it comes down to it, this is why my cofounder Sam and I created Clark.

Clark provides a way for tutors to easily maintain core components of their business, whether it’s billing clients, processing payments, scheduling a session, or reporting on important metrics, all while also providing a way for tutors to interface with parents and provide feedback on student progress. We’ve seen exciting adoption with this product and are proud to share that more than 20,000 tutoring sessions have already taken place on the Clark platform.

To help us further progress on our mission, we’re unveiling a major evolution of the product based on the feedback we’ve received from hundreds of educators across the country. While our customers find massive value in our software (often times saving them hours on end and thousands of dollars each month) we also heard that there are other important areas where guidance and support would be welcomed. We are approached daily by educators who want to get started building a tutoring business for the first time, but they don't know what steps they need to take.

Introducing Clark Build: Going Beyond the Software

Clark is no longer just a modern software stack for tutoring businesses. We’re now helping educators build their businesses from the ground up, so that anyone who wants to get into the field has the guidance and support they need to create a sustainable, flourishing, tutoring business.

When an educator partners with Clark Build, they get all the same foundational software that tutors have come to reply on, plus a whole lot more. Clark Build can help the four million educators that are underpaid in the US find new economic opportunities by helping them with every aspect of their business, so they can:

• Attract the right people: When an educator partners with Clark Build, they benefit from our extensive network that consists of thousands of parents, students and tutors that will help set their business up for success. In fact, we connect each new business with five students, right off the bat, to get things started.
• Hone in on the necessary skills: While tutors are experienced educators, they usually have questions about what it means to run their own operation. Clark Build includes a 30-day bootcamp designed to not only sharpen tutoring skills but also prepare for running a business. Whether it’s effective parental communication or business administration, an experienced tutoring business owner is there to address any and all questions.
• Market and promote the offering: Educators start tutoring businesses to help students, not learn the ins and outs of digital marketing. Clark Build is helping new businesses develop and refine their professional identity. With branding and marketing support that includes website building, search engine optimization, messaging development and review site profiles, new businesses can quickly become a trusted entity within the communities they serve.

“I’ve always felt confident in my abilities as an educator, but running my own business is another story. Needless to say, it requires a different skill set. Clark isn’t just a technology vendor for TREAD Educational Services, they’ve been a true partner that’s helped me every step of the way. They’ve empowered me to create a thriving business that is making a meaningful impact on the community in the greater Atlanta area.”

-Denice Dixon, TREAD Educational Services

As Clark expands, we aim to create more diversity among people that are able to start and run their own businesses. The limited overhead required to build a tutoring business with us means that you no longer need to have hundreds of thousands of dollars saved to get a business off the ground, and the hands on support Clark provides means prior entrepreneurial experience is no longer a requirement.

“A new wave of technology companies are empowering people to take big leaps and build their own businesses from the ground up. Clark is well positioned to lead the way in this future of work breakthrough, as it unlocks the next generation of entrepreneurs in the education space. It's exciting to see the company announce Clark Build, which gives aspiring business owners the tools they need to create a company, reach financial independence and create jobs in their communities”

-Aaron Batalion, Partner, Lightspeed Venture Partners

Clark believes that personal and individualized tutoring sessions will play a critical role in the future for education as classroom sizes continue to spike and individual attention per student goes down. Small, independent tutoring businesses are best set up to serve students because they understand the local education systems and are committed to fostering personal relationships within the communities that they serve.

Clark is just getting started. We want to play a meaningful role in education, which means constantly evolving our offering to meet current needs of educators, students and parents. There’s a lot of work to be done, but we’re up for the challenge. Know any educators ready to become entrepreneurs? hiclark.com/blog